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Topic: Wierd Chickens (Read 3729 times)

Last year I raised 2 batches of chicks from eggs I hatched with the help of an incubator. I found out that Light Brahmas crossed with Buff Orpingtons tend to be sex linked.

Heres the thing: Out of the first batch of chicks one of the Auracanna roosters entered the fall moult as a rooster and came out as a hen, it lost the comb and tailfeathers of a rooster. It lays a very pretty pink egg now.This spring one of the Buff Orpington hens started looking like a Hermorphidite, and got all out of perportion with itself. I just got back from a weeks vacation and found a Buff Orpington rooster in place of the one time hen.

I know that amphibians will change gender if a group is of only one sex then some of them will morph into members of the opposite sex in order to continue the species. I've even seen it in Parakeets--morphing into the opposite sex. But this is the first time I've seen it happen in chickens.

Anyone else have any similar experiences?

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Brian, ha!!! Now that is the weirdest thing that I have ever heard. Wonder how on earth this could have occurred. I would love to hear too if other forum members have had this happen, beautiful day, great day, good health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

That has got to be the strangest thing I've ever heard. Are you sure your rooster didn't run away to Vegas and hire a hen to take his place, or something? Or maybe it was just a butch hen to begin with. I had no idea it was even possible.

I had a Buff Brahma rooster that the Langshan rooster thought was a hen, much to the dismay of the Buff Brahma. And, when my Grandmother-in-law took six hens home and no roosters she came back to get a rooster because what the hens were doing "wasn't right".

I know from my own personal experience that if you have all hens and no rooster, one hen will stop laying and act as a rooster, kind of a lookout for the hens and acting as the boss. But I've never seen a hen actually become a rooster! That's wild!

Sean Kelly

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"My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste" - Proverbs 24:13

I still think it's a hermophadite. It has the cape of a rooster but the comb of a hen and only 2 curled tail feathers of the rooster type. It shouldn't need to be a rooster I have 4 large roosters and 1 banty rooster so why would it want to change?

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Brian, don't they say change is good. Ha, ha, ha. Have a wonderful day, good health wishes for all. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Will the hermorphidyte chicken is looking more and more like a rooster. Yesterday I even caught it riding one of the hens a la randy rooster. It still totally amazes me that a chicken than had laid eggs is now fertilizing them. Maybe I should donate it to science.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Brian, OK, there is something strange in your neighbourhood!!! These critters are of a strange breed for sure. Our Indian Runner duck keeps trying to get the chickens, other species of ducks, anything that he can get his "hands" on. Go figure that one!!! Roquefort, our big white rooster sure has his hands full trying to look after all his little ladies, I get such a kick out of it when I see him running across the backyard, I know for sure he is after another male that is wanting his way with one of his girls. Go figure.

The geese get really upset when the Muscovey drake is doing his thing with one of his girls, you should hear the honking that they do!!! It all makes me laugh, where would life be without the barnyard critters? Have a wonderful day, great life and great health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

I'm sure that if I asked the scientist they would say it's because I'm still using well water instead of hooking up to the city water system. I'm also still on a septic tank. The chicken drink water out of the mud puddles after a rain, so what's the difference between that and untreated well water. The only adjustment we make is boiling the drinking water in the teapot and then putting it in pitchers in the refrigerator. With the exception of the septic tank I'm living pretty much the same way I did back on the farm in the 50's. Then we still had the outhouse.

I like the well, I pay a little more for electricity but I don't have the huge water and sewer bills that my neighbors do. For what they pay in water and sewage bills I use to buy hay, chicken and goat feed, and my bee equipment.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Well water tastes sooooooo good too! The city water we had when we lived in Beaverton, Or. was terrible. Not to mention all the nasty chemicals they put in city water to "treat" it.We have a well now here in the country and I'll never go back to city water. But I guess it all depends on the ground you perk up. Our well water tastes sweet and cool, where our neighbor's well a mile down the road has a mild rotten egg smell.So if your all natural well water is making your chickens hemorphidyte, imagine what would happen to them if you gave them "treated" city water!!!

Sean Kelly

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"My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste" - Proverbs 24:13

huh Well water isn't uncommon where I live. Heck the city water is well water. The only thing they do is check it to make sure it's potable on a regular basis far as I know. Now a cistern that's a different story. I wouldn't drink out of one of those without boiling it twice and running it through a reverse osmosis filter.

Out west here they put flouride and other chemicals in the water. Some scientists are starting to think that the city water might be a cause of our ADD, ADHD, and other problems that have been rising so much in our children in the last 20 years. Who knows. :-)

Sean Kelly

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"My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste" - Proverbs 24:13

Sean, food for thought. During our 20 year tenure with being foster parents to teenager boys, we have come across so many young men with ADD and ADHD issues, and man can those be issues for these poor little dudes. We have chlorinated water, not really heavily used, can't taste it in the water, but I know it is there. I certainly must begin to wonder. Is there really such an influx of this dreaded malade, or is it just that it has been a more properly diagnosed condition that has always been present in societies. Hard to say. Have a wonderful day, great life. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Best way to come to a conclusion is pen him up with two or three hhens with no other rooster. Incubate the eggs for 21,to 23 days.I would not think it is imposible to have a chicken like that, but rare.My Father hatched one with two heads once but it did not live long.

The rooster, used to be a hen, did lay a few eggs then went into a stupor and molted during which its legs grew longer. As it came of the molt it began growing rooster feathers. It now looks and acts like a rooster but I think the eggs that I put under my bantums hens that didn't hatched were "fathered" by this rooster.

The thing is, this "chicken" was out of my 2nd batch of Brahma/Opington crosses which had shown a tendency to be sexlinked until this development.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Brian, again, something strange in your neighbourhood. Best of days, great life. Cindi

Logged

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service